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| Gerald Mertens
SYMPHONY AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRASThe German orchestral landscape, with its 133 professional, publicly financed
symphony and chamber orchestras, remains unparalleled worldwide for its den-sity and diversity. It is basically a four-tier system. The first tier is made up of the 84 theatre orchestras1 that play in the operas, operettas and musicals mounted at Germany’s municipal and state theatres. Here the spectrum ranges from the great , interna tionally renowned opera houses in Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Munich to the small theatres in Lüneburg, Annaberg and Hildesheim. The second tier consists of 30 concert orchestras which perform predominantly or exclusively in concert halls. The uncontested leader here is the Berlin Philharmonic, followed by a host of other internationally acclaimed orchestras, among which are the Mu-nich Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester
A Berlin landmark: Hans Scharoun’s Philharmonie
112
Berlin and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, to name only a few among the lar-gest of their rank. The third tier comprises seven publicly funded chamber orche-stras which work all year round as string orchestras without their own woodwind or brass sections. Examples include the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Würt-temberg Chamber Orchestra in Heilbronn and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. Fi-nally, the fourth tier involves the radio orchestras belonging to the ‘Consortium of public-law broadcasting corporations of the Federal Republic of Germany’, or ARD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundes-republik Deutschland) and the Rundfunkorchester und -Chöre GmbH Berlin (ROC). These 12 radio orches tras or radio symphony orchestras, four big bands and seven radio choruses (see also Figure 10.3 in the article ‘Music on Radio and Television’ by Helmut Scherer and Beate Schneider) remain a mainstay of high-quality per-formance, ambitious programming and the promotion of contemporary music in Germany.
Germany’s so-called Kulturorchester – a somewhat antiquated label used in col lective bargaining agreements but meaning nothing more than an orchestra which works all year round with a permanent staff – are financed primarily by the public sector. The funds generally come from state or local subsidies and from radio and TV licence fees. Due to the federal structure of the country, the German Länder (states) are in charge of cultural affairs, and the role of the national govern-ment in funding theatres and orchestras is minimal. The financing models of the
113
Symphony and Chamber Orchestras |
individual states differ considerably. Some theatres and orchestras are wholly or almost completely funded by a given state. These are then usually called Staats-theater (state theatres) or Staatsorchester (state orchestras). There are a very few cases of entirely local funding by a municipality. Most theatres and orchestras benefit from mixed funding provided by the Land and by local and nearby mu-nicipalities. The box-office returns and the orchestra’s own resources vary widely according to genre (music theatre, concert etc.) and from one region to the next. On average, they account for roughly 19 percent of the budget – often less, sometimes more. Only a few theatres and orchestras are privately sponsored; fundraising in this sector is virtually non-existent.
In addition to the Kulturorchester, mention should also be made of other pro-fessional ensembles and chamber orchestras which either work on a project-by-project basis with a regular group of freelance musicians (‘project orchestras’) or,
if they have the benefit of public funding, with a permanent staff. Examples in the first category are the Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt), the Deutsche Kammer-philharmonie (Bremen), the Bavarian Chamber Orchestra (Bad Brückenau) and the Concerto Köln. The second group includes the Georgian Chamber Orchestra (In-golstadt) and the Potsdam Chamber Academy, among others. The German Music Information Centre (Deutsches Musikinformationszentrum, or MIZ) currently lists more than 80 professional chamber orchestras on its website.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Schauspielhaus am Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin: formerly a theatre, now a concert hall
114
STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ORCHESTRA LANDSCAPE
Germany’s orchestra landscape dates back to the late 15th century. The earliest orchestra still in existence today is that of the Hessian State Theatre in Kassel, which was founded in 1502. Renowned traditional orchestras, such as the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Weimar Staatskapelle and the Mecklenburg Staatskapelle in Schwerin, were founded in the 16th century; still others were assembled at various German courts during the 17th and 18th centuries. This explains why Thuringia has a particularly large concentration of orchestras. The founding of court and church ensembles was followed, during the 19th and 20th centuries, by the estab-lishment of a bourgeois orchestra culture in small and mid-size towns. Beginning in the 1920s and again after World War II, in East and West alike, this landscape was broadened with the addition of radio ensembles and other municipal and state orchestras. The density of orchestras is particularly high in Munich, Stutt-gart and Berlin, since these cities are home to several funding entities: the state government (all three are state capitals), the municipal authorities, and public broadcasting corporations. East Germany took a targeted approach in the 1960s and began to locate theatres and orchestras in smaller communities and county seats under the slogan ‘Kultur auf’s Land!’ (culture in the countryside). Decentrali-sation has thus been an important feature of the orchestra landscape in Germany to the present day. Orchestras are found not only in large cites but spread more or less evenly across the country as a whole, even in rural areas (see Figure 5.1).
A bastion of Cologne’s musical life for the
last 25 years: the Cologne Philharmonie
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Symphony and Chamber Orchestras |
DISSOLUTIONS, MERGERS, NEW LEGAL FORMS
Germany’s orchestra landscape has changed dramatically since the 1990s. While the number of theatres and orchestras first grew in 1990, in the wake of Ger-man reunification, this was soon followed by a wave of adjustment and consolida-tion. As a result – primarily in the newly formed German states – large numbers of theatres and orchestras were merged with one another, scaled back or elimi nated entirely. This occurred for financial reasons, particularly in view of the limited transitional financing provided by the German federal government. In the case of orchestras, this fate was met not only by small orchestras in a handful of rural areas or spoken theatres in the eastern section of Berlin; rather, it also affected larger orchestras in erstwhile regional capitals of the former German Democratic Republic, including Schwerin, Erfurt, Potsdam and Suhl, as well as individual radio orchestras of the former East German broadcasting network in Berlin and Leipzig.
Parallel to this special development in the newly formed German states, how-ever, there were also severe structural adjustments in the states of what had been West Germany – primarily in North Rhine-Westphalia. They began with the clos-ing of the Oberhausen Music Theatre in 1992 and continued with the insolvency of the Philharmonia Hungarica (Marl) in 2001. Another case was the liquidation and insolvency of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra in 2004, which now only works as a project orchestra. The first all-German stocktaking in 1992 identified 168 pub licly financed concert, opera, chamber and radio orchestras; since then, 35 ensembles have been dissolved or merged. At the close of the 2006-07 season, the Philhar-monic State Orchestra in Halle was merged with the Halle Opera House orchestra to create the ‘Halle Staatskapelle’. This gave rise to an ensemble with 152 posi-tions, making it Germany’s second-largest orchestra after the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Currently, however, debate is ongoing over a further reduction in the size of this orchestra. Recently it was decided to scale back the orches tra as part of the founding of a limited joint-stock company, but this decision has not yet been implemented, since the parties are bound by a company-wide wage agree ment. At the beginning of the 2007-08 season, the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra merged with the Kaiserslautern Radio Symphony Orchestra to create the ‘Deut-sche Radiophilharmonie’, headquartered in Saarbrücken.
116
PhilharmonischesOrchester Kiel
PhilharmonischesOrchester derHansestadt Lübeck Norddeutsche
Philharmonie RostockNeubrandenburgerPhilharmonieStädtisches Orchester
Bremerhaven
BremerPhilharmoniker
OsnabrückerSymphonie-orchester
SinfonieorchesterMünster
Sinfonie-orchesterAachen
BeethovenOrchester Bonn
Niederrhein.Sinfoniker, (1950)
StaatsorchesterRheinische Philharmonie,
Koblenz
PhilharmonischesOrchester derStadt Trier
Orchester desHessischenStaatstheatersWiesbaden
PhilharmonischesOrchester Gießen
PhilharmonischesStaatsorchester Mainz Staatsorchester
Darmstadt
BadischeStaatskapelle,
Karlsruhe
NiederbayerischePhilharmonie, Passau
PhilharmonischesOrchester Regensburg
SüdwestdeutschePhilharmonie Konstanz
WürttembergischePhilharmonieReutlingen
Baden-BadenerPhilharmonie
PhilharmonischesOrchester derStadt Ulm
Bad ReichenhallerPhilharmonie
PreußischesKammerorchester,PrenzlauLüneburger
Sinfoniker
HamburgerSymphoniker
PhilharmonikerHamburg
NDR Sinfonie-orchester,Hamburg
MecklenburgischeStaatskapelle, Schwerin
PhilharmonischesLandesorchesterMecklenburg-SchwerinerPhilharmonie (1992)
Greifswald
Orchester des Landes-theaters Mecklenburg,Neustrelitz (1994)
Stralsund
OldenburgischesStaatsorchester Konzertorchester
Salzwedel (1992)Orchesterdes Theatersder Altmark,Stendal (1994)
BrandenburgischesKonzertorchester Eberswalde
Brandenburger Sym-phoniker, Branden-
burg an der Havel
DuisburgerPhilharmoniker
Städtisches OrchesterOberhausen (1992)
Düsseld. Symphoniker Sol. Berg. Sympho-niker, (1995)
Rem.
WDRRundfunk-orchester
Köln
WDR Sinfonie-orchester Köln
Gürzenich-Orchester
Köln
Recklinghausen
Neue PhilharmonieWestfalen (1996)
Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal
PhilharmonischesOrchester Hagen
Dortmunder PhilharmonikerKre-feld
Mönchengl.
Gel.
PhilharmonieSüdwestfalen,Hilchenbach
Staats-orchester
Kassel
GöttingerSymphonie
Orchester
BielefelderPhilharmoniker Orchester des
LandestheatersDetmold
NordwestdeutschePhilharmonie, Herford
TfN Phil-harmonie,
Hildesheim
StaatsorchesterBraunschweig
NiedersächsischesStaatsorchesterHannover
EichsfelderKulturorchesterHeiligenstadt (1993)
MeiningerHofkapelle
ThüringenPhilharmonieSuhl(1997)
Thür. Phil-harmonieGotha
Philhar-monischesOrchesterWürzburg
BambergerSymphoniker
WürttembergischesKammerorchester Heilbronn
HoferSym-phoniker
Philharmonisches OrchesterLandestheater Coburg
SaarländischesStaatsorchester,
Saarbrücken
Deutsche Radio PhilharmonieSaarbrücken Kaiserslautern
(2007) Orchester desPfalztheatersKaiserslautern
Philharmonisches Orchesterder Stadt Heidelberg
Deutsche StaatsphilharmonieRheinland-Pfalz, Ludwigshafen
Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim
Kurpfälzisches Kammer-orchester Ludwigshafen-Mannheim
Südwest-deutschesKammer-orchesterPforzheim
BadischePhilharmoniePforzheim
22
23
Philharmonisches OrchesterFreiburg (i.Br.)
Nürnberger Symphoniker
NürnbergerPhilharmoniker
Rundfunkorchester desHR, Frankfurt a.M. (1993)
Frankfurter Opern- undMuseumsorchester
hr-Sinfonieorchester,Frankfurt a.M.
Chursächsische PhilharmonieBad Elster (2000)**
MagdeburgischePhilharmonie
LandeskapelleEisenach
Philharmon.Orchester Erfurt
Staats-kapelleWeimar
JenaerPhilhar-monie
Sonders-hausen
Saalf.ThüringerSymphonikerSaalfeld-Rudolstadt,(1992)
Orchester d.Theaters
Zeitz,(2003)
BrandenburgischePhilharmonie,Potsdam (2000)
DeutschesFilmorchester
Babelsberg,Potsdam
Nord-hausen
AnhaltischePhilharmonieDessau Orchester des Mittel-
dt. LandestheatersWittenberg (2002) Philharmonisches
Orchester des Staats-theaters Cottbus
BrandenburgischesKonzertorchester,Cottbus (1991)
Orchester derNeuen Bühne
Senftenberg(1993)
Südbrandenburger Orchester,Senftenberg (1996)
Orchester der Staatsoperette Dresden
DresdnerPhilharmonie
Sächs. Staatskapelle Dresden
Orchesterdes Stadt-theatersDöbeln(1992)
PhilharmonischesOrchester Augsburg
BayerischesStaatsorchester,
MünchenMünchnerSymphoniker
MünchnerPhilharmoniker
MünchenerKammerorchester
Orchester desStaatstheatersam Gärtnerplatz,München
Symphonieorchesterdes BayerischenRundfunks, München
MünchnerRundfunkorchester
StaatsorchesterStuttgart
Stuttgarter Philharmoniker
SWR SinfonieorchesterBaden-Baden undFreiburg, Freiburg (i.Br.)
ConcertorchesterBad Salzungen (1992)
2120
19
Neue LausitzerPhilharmonie,Görlitz (1996)
Erzgebirgische PhilharmonieAue (1998)
9
10
Philharmon.Kammerorchester
Wernigerode
Vogtland Philharmonie Greiz/Reichenbach (1992)Philharmonisches-Orchester Plauen-Zwickau (2000)Pl.
Zwi.
SorbischesKammerorchester,Bautzen
Mittelsächsische Philharmonie, Freiberg (1993)Staatliches Orchester Sachsen, Chemnitz (1993)
Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie Chemnitz
GeraRu.
GreizRei.
15642
378
Altenbg.
11 1213
14
18
16
17
15
Brandenburgisches StaatsorchesterFrankfurt, Frankfurt (Oder)
NDR Radio-philharmonie,
Hannover
Gewand-hausorchester,Leipzig
Rundfunkorchester Berlin (1992)
Staatskapelle Berlin
Orchester derDeutschenOper Berlin
DeutschesSymphonie-Orchester Berlin
Schleswig-HolsteinischesSinfonieorchester, Flensburg (1974)
Philharmonisches Orchester Vorpommern (1994)
Loh-OrchesterSondershausen,
(1991)
Orchester d.NordharzerStädtebund-theaters,Halberstadt(1994)
Staatskapelle Halle(Saale) (2006)
* Currently a project orchestra
** Project orchestra cooperating with Vogtlandphilharmonie Greiz/Reichenbach since 1900
Saar-brücken
Kai.
PERMANENT POSITIONS
‘KULTURORCHESTER’Radio orchestra
Concert orchestra
Theatre orchestra
Chamber orchestra
Orchestra disbanded since 1990Red lettering indicates year of dissolution (in brackets)
Orchestra created by mergerGrey italicised lettering indicates year of merger (in brackets)
Orchestra with several sites
For orchestras with several sites, the number of permanent positions is given for the respective site.
185100
5020
8
BERLIN1 Orchester der Komischen Oper, Berlin2 Orchester des Metropol-Theaters, Berlin (1997)3 Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin4 Orchester des Theaters des Westens, Berlin (2001)5 Konzerthausorchester Berlin6 Orchester des FriedrichstadtPalastes, Berlin7 Berliner Philharmoniker8 Berliner Symphoniker (2004)*
CENTRAL GERMANY9 Telemann Kammerorchester Michaelstein, Blankenburg (2000)10 Orchester der Landesbühnen Sachsen-Anhalt, Eisleben (1992)11 Orchester der Musikalischen Komödie, Leipzig12 MDR-Sinfonieorchester, Leipzig (1992)13 Westsächsisches Symphonieorchester, Böhlen/Leipzig14 Rundfunk-Blasorchester Leipzig, Bad Lausick15 Philharmonisches Orchester Altenburg-Gera (2000)16 Neue Elbland Philharmonie, Riesa (1993)17 Orchester der Landesbühnen Sachsen, Radebeul18 Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Schönebeck
RUHR AREA19 Philharmonia Hungarica, Marl (2001)20 Bochumer Symphoniker21 Essener Philharmoniker
STUTTGART22 Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR23 Stuttgarter Kammerorchester
national borderstate border0 50 100 km7525
Cartography: S. DutzmannLeipzig, 2010
Sources: German Music Information Centre, German Orchestra Association
Publicly-Funded Orchestras, 2010Structural changes since 1990
117
Symphony and Chamber Orchestras |
PhilharmonischesOrchester Kiel
PhilharmonischesOrchester derHansestadt Lübeck Norddeutsche
Philharmonie RostockNeubrandenburgerPhilharmonieStädtisches Orchester
Bremerhaven
BremerPhilharmoniker
OsnabrückerSymphonie-orchester
SinfonieorchesterMünster
Sinfonie-orchesterAachen
BeethovenOrchester Bonn
Niederrhein.Sinfoniker, (1950)
StaatsorchesterRheinische Philharmonie,
Koblenz
PhilharmonischesOrchester derStadt Trier
Orchester desHessischenStaatstheatersWiesbaden
PhilharmonischesOrchester Gießen
PhilharmonischesStaatsorchester Mainz Staatsorchester
Darmstadt
BadischeStaatskapelle,
Karlsruhe
NiederbayerischePhilharmonie, Passau
PhilharmonischesOrchester Regensburg
SüdwestdeutschePhilharmonie Konstanz
WürttembergischePhilharmonieReutlingen
Baden-BadenerPhilharmonie
PhilharmonischesOrchester derStadt Ulm
Bad ReichenhallerPhilharmonie
PreußischesKammerorchester,PrenzlauLüneburger
Sinfoniker
HamburgerSymphoniker
PhilharmonikerHamburg
NDR Sinfonie-orchester,Hamburg
MecklenburgischeStaatskapelle, Schwerin
PhilharmonischesLandesorchesterMecklenburg-SchwerinerPhilharmonie (1992)
Greifswald
Orchester des Landes-theaters Mecklenburg,Neustrelitz (1994)
Stralsund
OldenburgischesStaatsorchester Konzertorchester
Salzwedel (1992)Orchesterdes Theatersder Altmark,Stendal (1994)
BrandenburgischesKonzertorchester Eberswalde
Brandenburger Sym-phoniker, Branden-
burg an der Havel
DuisburgerPhilharmoniker
Städtisches OrchesterOberhausen (1992)
Düsseld. Symphoniker Sol. Berg. Sympho-niker, (1995)
Rem.
WDRRundfunk-orchester
Köln
WDR Sinfonie-orchester Köln
Gürzenich-Orchester
Köln
Recklinghausen
Neue PhilharmonieWestfalen (1996)
Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal
PhilharmonischesOrchester Hagen
Dortmunder PhilharmonikerKre-feld
Mönchengl.
Gel.
PhilharmonieSüdwestfalen,Hilchenbach
Staats-orchester
Kassel
GöttingerSymphonie
Orchester
BielefelderPhilharmoniker Orchester des
LandestheatersDetmold
NordwestdeutschePhilharmonie, Herford
TfN Phil-harmonie,
Hildesheim
StaatsorchesterBraunschweig
NiedersächsischesStaatsorchesterHannover
EichsfelderKulturorchesterHeiligenstadt (1993)
MeiningerHofkapelle
ThüringenPhilharmonieSuhl(1997)
Thür. Phil-harmonieGotha
Philhar-monischesOrchesterWürzburg
BambergerSymphoniker
WürttembergischesKammerorchester Heilbronn
HoferSym-phoniker
Philharmonisches OrchesterLandestheater Coburg
SaarländischesStaatsorchester,
Saarbrücken
Deutsche Radio PhilharmonieSaarbrücken Kaiserslautern
(2007) Orchester desPfalztheatersKaiserslautern
Philharmonisches Orchesterder Stadt Heidelberg
Deutsche StaatsphilharmonieRheinland-Pfalz, Ludwigshafen
Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim
Kurpfälzisches Kammer-orchester Ludwigshafen-Mannheim
Südwest-deutschesKammer-orchesterPforzheim
BadischePhilharmoniePforzheim
22
23
Philharmonisches OrchesterFreiburg (i.Br.)
Nürnberger Symphoniker
NürnbergerPhilharmoniker
Rundfunkorchester desHR, Frankfurt a.M. (1993)
Frankfurter Opern- undMuseumsorchester
hr-Sinfonieorchester,Frankfurt a.M.
Chursächsische PhilharmonieBad Elster (2000)**
MagdeburgischePhilharmonie
LandeskapelleEisenach
Philharmon.Orchester Erfurt
Staats-kapelleWeimar
JenaerPhilhar-monie
Sonders-hausen
Saalf.ThüringerSymphonikerSaalfeld-Rudolstadt,(1992)
Orchester d.Theaters
Zeitz,(2003)
BrandenburgischePhilharmonie,Potsdam (2000)
DeutschesFilmorchester
Babelsberg,Potsdam
Nord-hausen
AnhaltischePhilharmonieDessau Orchester des Mittel-
dt. LandestheatersWittenberg (2002) Philharmonisches
Orchester des Staats-theaters Cottbus
BrandenburgischesKonzertorchester,Cottbus (1991)
Orchester derNeuen Bühne
Senftenberg(1993)
Südbrandenburger Orchester,Senftenberg (1996)
Orchester der Staatsoperette Dresden
DresdnerPhilharmonie
Sächs. Staatskapelle Dresden
Orchesterdes Stadt-theatersDöbeln(1992)
PhilharmonischesOrchester Augsburg
BayerischesStaatsorchester,
MünchenMünchnerSymphoniker
MünchnerPhilharmoniker
MünchenerKammerorchester
Orchester desStaatstheatersam Gärtnerplatz,München
Symphonieorchesterdes BayerischenRundfunks, München
MünchnerRundfunkorchester
StaatsorchesterStuttgart
Stuttgarter Philharmoniker
SWR SinfonieorchesterBaden-Baden undFreiburg, Freiburg (i.Br.)
ConcertorchesterBad Salzungen (1992)
2120
19
Neue LausitzerPhilharmonie,Görlitz (1996)
Erzgebirgische PhilharmonieAue (1998)
9
10
Philharmon.Kammerorchester
Wernigerode
Vogtland Philharmonie Greiz/Reichenbach (1992)Philharmonisches-Orchester Plauen-Zwickau (2000)Pl.
Zwi.
SorbischesKammerorchester,Bautzen
Mittelsächsische Philharmonie, Freiberg (1993)Staatliches Orchester Sachsen, Chemnitz (1993)
Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie Chemnitz
GeraRu.
GreizRei.
15642
378
Altenbg.
11 1213
14
18
16
17
15
Brandenburgisches StaatsorchesterFrankfurt, Frankfurt (Oder)
NDR Radio-philharmonie,
Hannover
Gewand-hausorchester,Leipzig
Rundfunkorchester Berlin (1992)
Staatskapelle Berlin
Orchester derDeutschenOper Berlin
DeutschesSymphonie-Orchester Berlin
Schleswig-HolsteinischesSinfonieorchester, Flensburg (1974)
Philharmonisches Orchester Vorpommern (1994)
Loh-OrchesterSondershausen,
(1991)
Orchester d.NordharzerStädtebund-theaters,Halberstadt(1994)
Staatskapelle Halle(Saale) (2006)
* Currently a project orchestra
** Project orchestra cooperating with Vogtlandphilharmonie Greiz/Reichenbach since 1900
Saar-brücken
Kai.
PERMANENT POSITIONS
‘KULTURORCHESTER’Radio orchestra
Concert orchestra
Theatre orchestra
Chamber orchestra
Orchestra disbanded since 1990Red lettering indicates year of dissolution (in brackets)
Orchestra created by mergerGrey italicised lettering indicates year of merger (in brackets)
Orchestra with several sites
For orchestras with several sites, the number of permanent positions is given for the respective site.
185100
5020
8
BERLIN1 Orchester der Komischen Oper, Berlin2 Orchester des Metropol-Theaters, Berlin (1997)3 Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin4 Orchester des Theaters des Westens, Berlin (2001)5 Konzerthausorchester Berlin6 Orchester des FriedrichstadtPalastes, Berlin7 Berliner Philharmoniker8 Berliner Symphoniker (2004)*
CENTRAL GERMANY9 Telemann Kammerorchester Michaelstein, Blankenburg (2000)10 Orchester der Landesbühnen Sachsen-Anhalt, Eisleben (1992)11 Orchester der Musikalischen Komödie, Leipzig12 MDR-Sinfonieorchester, Leipzig (1992)13 Westsächsisches Symphonieorchester, Böhlen/Leipzig14 Rundfunk-Blasorchester Leipzig, Bad Lausick15 Philharmonisches Orchester Altenburg-Gera (2000)16 Neue Elbland Philharmonie, Riesa (1993)17 Orchester der Landesbühnen Sachsen, Radebeul18 Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Schönebeck
RUHR AREA19 Philharmonia Hungarica, Marl (2001)20 Bochumer Symphoniker21 Essener Philharmoniker
STUTTGART22 Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR23 Stuttgarter Kammerorchester
national borderstate border0 50 100 km7525
Cartography: S. DutzmannLeipzig, 2010
Sources: German Music Information Centre, German Orchestra Association
Publicly-Funded Orchestras, 2010Structural changes since 1990
The map of orchestra sites (see Figure 5.1) shows the orchestra landscape after Ger-man reunification in 1990 and the manner in which it has since changed, in particular through mergers and dissolutions. The mer-gers were particularly painful in rural areas . In the final analysis, however, they were warranted in those cases where neighbour-ing orchestras and music theatres were producing independent programmes for an ever-shrinking audience, as happened in Nordhausen-Sondershausen, Gera-Alten-burg, Rudolstadt-Saalfeld and Greifswald-Stralsund. Dissolutions were especially pre-valent in those areas where there was no longer a political majority in favour of pub-lic funding (e.g. the Brandenburg Philhar-monic in Potsdam) or where the historical rationale for forming the orchestra had va-nished (e.g. the Philharmonia Hungarica in Marl, the Thüringen Philharmonic in Suhl and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra).
The number of identified positions for musicians has dropped from 12,159 in 1992 to 9,922, i.e. by 2,237 positions, or roughly 18 per-cent. Of this reduction, 1,742 of the positions eliminated had been in the newly formed German states and former East Berlin, and 495 in the states of former West Germany
Figure 5.1
118
and former West Berlin (see Figure 5.2) , which has lost 82 positions since 2008 alone – twice as many as in the newly formed eastern states.
NUMBER OF VISITORS AND EVENTS
In spite of the structural transformation described above, the current statistics of the Deutscher Bühnenverein (German Theatre and Orchestra Association) show a growing number of concerts, from around 6,900 in the 2000-01 season to 8,700 today (see Figure 5.3). However, these figures do not cover all the 12 radio orchestras
>> Permanent positions in German ‘Kulturorchester’
Index (1992=100 %)
1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Number of positions1 Decline
1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 1992-2010
(168) (154) (151) (146) (145) (139) (136) (135) (133) (133) %
East 5,032 4,411 4,198 4,032 3,878 3,637 3,545 3,398 3,372 3,290 - 34.62
West 7,127 7,075 7,018 6,991 6,961 6,808 6,780 6,654 6,665 6,632 - 6.95
Total 12,159 11,486 11,216 11,023 10,839 10,445 10,325 10,052 10,037 9,922 - 18.40
1 Number of orchestras in brackets.Source: Compiled and edited by the German Music Information Centre from data supplied by Deutsche Orchester-vereinigung.
Total - 18.40 %
West- 6.95 %
East-34.62 %
100
90
80
70
60
50
Figure 5.2
119
Symphony and Chamber Orchestras |
and radio symphony orchestras or other radio ensembles. Basically, the number of concert-goers grew in East and West alike, topping the four million mark for the first time in 2007-08. This is a positive trend, and it remains to be seen how the grow ing number of music festivals – particularly in summer – will affect the gener al number of concert-goers and the rate of capacity utilisation.
The German Orchestra Union (Deutsche Orchestervereinigung, or DOV) list- ed about 12,700 concerts of Kulturorchester and radio ensembles (excluding big bands) for 2009, with 6,100 symphony concerts (including tours abroad), 1,200 chamber concerts and 3,700 educational events (concerts for children and young adults, concerts for school pupils and workshops held in schools) (see Figure 5.4). These statistics underline the particular importance that new or-chestral activities have gained in music appreciation, an area which comprises concerts for children, young adults and school groups as well as workshops. It is encouraging to note that the number of concerts for school pupils has increased
>> Concerts and attendance of ‘Kulturorchester’
Season
Concerts Visitors
Total Concert orchestras1 Theatre orchestras2 Total3
2000-01 6,899 4,686 2,213 3,666,142
2001-02 6,922 4,718 2,204 3,797,022
2002-03 7,179 4,833 2,346 3,747,268
2003-04 7,432 4,795 2,637 3,990,782
2004-05 8,127 5,717 2,410 3,795,471
2005-06 8,428 6,043 2,385 3,774,301
2006-07 8,414 5,871 2,543 3,941,835
2007-08 8,711 6,148 2,563 4,020,745
2008-09 8,704 6,079 2,625 4,053,629
Note: The data in the time line can only partly be compared, since some theatres were shut down for construction work or the data are incomplete owing to faulty reporting.1 Local and non-local concerts.2 Own concerts in own premises.3 Attendance fi gures for theatre orchestras include in-house performances as well as concerts by other ensembles that take
place on their premises. Those for concert orchestras also include concerts on other premises (e.g. tours, etc).
Source: Compiled and calculated by the German Music Information Centre from Theaterstatistik, vols. 2000-01 to 2008-09, ed. Deutscher Bühnenverein (Cologne, 2002-2010).
Figure 5.3
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considerably in recent years. Unfortunately it was not possible to compile precise figures for the numbers of concert-goers involved since this information is not al-ways recorded for school or open-air events or for guest performances.
As long as there is a continued lack of reliable and complete data for all con-
certs given by Kulturorchester, it will be difficult to predict trends in attendance. Even more problematic is the recording and breakdown of attendance figures for such concert halls as in Dortmund, Essen, and soon in Hamburg (opening sched-uled for 2012), and for major German music festivals (e.g. the Schleswig Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Rheingau festivals), where outstanding German and foreign Kulturorchester and many other ensembles perform but reliable figures on attendance are not kept.
According to theatre statistics, the figures for attendance and capacity utilisa-tion at music theatre events and concerts by theatre orchestras (excluding concert orchestras) have not undergone significant change in the period under considera-tion. They have remained relatively high, with average capacity utilisation rates between 70 and 80 percent.2
Type of event
Season
2003-04 2005-06 2007-08
Symphony concerts1 6,027 5,918 6,075
Music education events 2,141 3,747 3,723
Concerts for children and young adults 742 928 972
Concerts for school pupils 414 570 665
Workshops at schools 985 2,249 2,086
Chamber concerts 993 1,136 1,195
Other concerts 1,208 1,997 1,691
Total 10,369 12,798 12,684
1 Including concerts abroad (2003-04: 519; 2005-06: 526; 2007-08: 614).
Source: Compiled by Deutsche Orchestervereinigung.
>> Concerts by ‘Kulturorchester’ in Germany
Figure 5.4
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The overall figures show that publicly financed theatres and orchestras are more than just receivers of subsidies. Instead, they are influential players in the local economy. They constitute powerful forces of supply and demand at the re-gional level, creating bonds with highly skilled labour through their methods of production. This in turn leads to increased tax revenue for the municipality and al-lows local businesses to participate directly or indirectly in the theatres’ eco nomic activities.
COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS, PAY BRACKETS AND ORCHESTRA SIZE
The salaries and working conditions of musicians employed in Kulturorchester are governed by a collective agreement known as the ‘Tarifvertrag für Musiker in Kulturorchestern’ (TVK). It applies across the board for most opera orchestras and some concert orchestras. This blanket salary situation for orchestras is the only one of its kind in the world. As a rule, for radio ensembles the special salary provisions of the various public-law broadcasting corporations apply instead. Many concert or-chestras have their own wage agreements which are based on the TVK but contain terms specific to the localities involved and often special provisions for concert tours.
In the TVK area, which covers municipal and state orchestras, a distinction needs to be made in view of remuneration and ‘ranking’. Whereas the payrolls for opera orchestras are broken down into seven pay groups according to the size of the orchestra (referred to as a ‘membership size’ scheme), for concert orchestras the musicians are grouped according to a separate classification contract (‘concert or-chestra wage agreement’). A third option is an individual wage agreement specific to the orchestra in question (e.g. for the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Philhar-monic and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra). For most concert orches tras, how-ever, the basic orientation is towards the wage groups found in opera orchestras.
The parties to the wage agreements for radio ensembles are the respective broadcasting corporations and the German Orchestra Union (Deutsche Orches-tervereinigung, or DOV) in its capacity as a union and professional association of orchestra musicians and radio chorus singers. The TVK and industry-wide collec-tive agreements supplementing the TVK, as well as all orchestra-specific collective agreements for municipal and state orchestras, are generally negotiated by the
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DOV with the German Theatre and Orchestra Association (Deutscher Bühnenver-ein, or DBV) as an employers’ association, provided the orchestra employer is a member of the DBV. If the employer is not a DBV member, the wage agreement is nego tiated directly with the DOV.
Opera orchestras are assigned to pay groups A to D, depending on their mem-bership and their number of positions. Those with no more than 56 positions at their disposal are assigned to the lowest remuneration category, pay group D. Pay group C applies to orchestras with between 56 and 65 positions; group B for 66 or more; and from 78 pay group B/F (where F stands for ‘footnote’ as the bonus paid is indicated in a footnote to the pay scale). Opera orchestras with 99 positions or more are placed in pay group A. For ensembles of between 99 and 129 positions, a variable footnote bonus can be paid (pay group A/F2), while for opera orchestras of 130 positions or more, payment of a footnote bonus is mandatory (pay group A/F1). This is the uppermost pay group. There are thus seven pay groups in all. What decides an ensemble’s classification is not the number of positions actually filled, but rather the number of positions shown in the budget and staff appointment scheme. This is why there are a few orchestras that, for example, employ slightly fewer than 99 musicians and yet are classed in pay group A. In some cases, an en-semble is classed in a higher pay group by means of a unilateral sovereign act on the part of the funding entity.
For decades the grouping of opera orchestras according to size rather than ar-tistic attainments has been subject to criticism. The putative counterexample are the five West German chamber orchestras, which, although no larger than 14 to 24 musicians, nevertheless always remunerate their musicians under pay group A.
Topping the pyramid of salaries for Germany’s Kulturorchester is the Berlin Philharmonic, closely followed by the Munich Philharmonic and the big radio symphony orchestras in Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart and Hamburg. At the second tier – yet still, for the most part, ranking above pay group A/F1 – are such orchestras as the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, the Bavar-ian State Orchestra (Munich), the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony and the Ham-burg Philharmonic, as well as other radio symphony orchestras and radio orches-
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tras. These top orchestras are opera as well as concert orchestras with more than 115 posts. The other municipal and state opera and concert orchestras are spread out across the aforementioned TVK pay groups, although certainly the occasional orchestra can be found which pays its musicians at levels below pay group D.
THE STATE OF GERMANY’S OPERA AND RADIO CHORUSES AND RADIO ENSEMBLES As with orchestra personnel, the number of opera chorus positions in Ger-
man music theatres has also fallen, declining by more than 11 percent since 1993 and currently at approximately 2,900. There is also a serious lack of young talent in this area. Each year there is a need for approximately 160 new singers in Ger-man music theatres (including soloists). Some 300 trained singers graduate from Germany’s tertiary-level music schools (Musikhochschulen) and conservatories an-nually; of these, only about ten percent, or 30, find lasting jobs as professional sing-ers (solo, concert, opera or radio choruses). Yet some 80 to 100 positions continue to go unfilled in opera choruses each year.
In radio choruses, the number of positions has also continually dropped since 1990. Meanwhile, due to a lack of sufficient new hiring, in some instances this has led to structural ageing among the chorus membership. By the same token there has been growth in the ranks of professional singers hired by radio broad-
NDR Choir
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casters on a project basis for larger assignments as chorus reinforcements. Radio choruses have, in the meantime, also grown indispensable as concert choirs for choral-orchestral performances by the major municipal orchestras and for CD re-cordings.
Ever since 2003, when several German state premiers published structural re-flections on reforming Germany’s public-law broadcasting system and increasing its radio and TV licence fees, radio orchestras have also been trimmed down in various locations. The spectrum of approaches ranges from non-hiring to reduc-tions in size to dissolution and mergers. One feature common to all of these reflec-tions is that the affected broadcasting corporations justified them on the basis of a lower-than-expected increase in radio and TV licence fees, an increase recom-mended by the Commission on the Financial Needs of Public Broadcasting Corpo-rations (Kommission zur Ermittlung des Finanzbedarfs der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten, or KEF). Particularly hard hit were the Munich Radio Orches-tra, with a reduction from 71 to 54 positions, and the Vocal Ensemble of Southwest German Radio in Stuttgart. With future annual fees of more than € 7 billion, fixed
Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic’s educational programme Zukunft@BPhil
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costs for the payroll of the orchestras’ artistic staff amount to some € 155 million each year, or approximately two percent. In 2004, the ARD itself had set the costs for all radio ensembles at € 0.36 of the monthly radio and TV licence fee.
NEW ORCHESTRAL ACTIVITIES – INFLUENCING THE WORLD OF MUSIC
It is a well-known fact that concert and theatre orchestras have a wide variety of ways of influencing the world of music besides giving concerts and performing operas. In fact, all orchestras have a broad spectrum of chamber-music formations which either exist or meet on an ad hoc basis to enrich the local and regional con-cert scene, voluntarily and quite apart from their official duties. The realms of music schools and amateur, student, and federal and state youth orchestras, not to mention church congregations, profit in many ways from the involvement of orchestra members. Professional musicians are frequently active on a volunteer basis, not just as instrument teachers, but as soloists or expert mentors to these non-professional orchestras.
There is also a welcome upward trend in the area of orchestra activities for children, young adults and families. Since 2000, with its ‚Concerts for Children Initiative‘ (Initiative Konzerte für Kinder), the organisation Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland (JMD) has developed extensive activities to convey special new tech-niques for devising concerts for these target groups in a professional manner. Since then, more and more orchestras have taken up the cause of working with chil-dren, young people and school groups; this is shown by the figures now regu larly collected (see above comments on events in music education and Figure 5.4). The Education Project organised by the Berlin Philharmonic has attracted an unwa-veringly high level of interest. Since autumn 2002, the project has been carried out with financial support from the Deutsche Bank, and both in substantive and me-dia terms it functions somewhat as a role model. Since 2004, numerous other new activities by orchestras in schools have been developed and documented as part of the Network of Orchestras and Schools (‘Netzwerk Orchester & Schulen’). Here schoolteachers, orchestra musicians and their associations work closely together at all levels, offering opportunities for regular exchanges of experiences and for participation in continuing education events.
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The Young Ears Network (‘netzwerk junge ohren’), with headquarters in Berlin, was newly established in 2007. This is a network in which various music asso-ciations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have joined forces to work across nation al boundaries in order to co-ordinate and expand activities by orchestras, music theatres and concert halls, as well as music publishers and recording com-panies, with the aim of exposing young people in German-speaking areas to mu-sic (www.jungeohren.de). Every year the network awards the Young Ears Prize (‘junge ohren preis’) for outstanding musical appreciation projects.
PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE
The threat to the institution of the orchestra over the last few years, document-ed in the figures offered here, is the product not so much of a genuine ‘identity crisis’ but rather of the increasingly narrow basis for financing offered by the pub-lic authorities.
In the past, public funding was subject to heavy strain, all the more so at the state and local levels. Yet these budgets cannot be relieved through efforts to ‘freeze ’ funding levels or make additional cuts in cultural support. After all, ac-
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counting as it does for only approximately one percent of the overall budget, cultur-al funding is marginal at best. Nor can additional changes in legal forms, or an ‘es-cape’ from wage agreements, do anything to alter the structurally in eradicable fact that human resources costs make up roughly 85 to 90 percent of budgets in theatres and orchestras. This stands in contrast to the general public budget, in which this item only accounts for some 33 to 40 percent. If an across-the-board cut is instituted here, the strain upon orchestras and theatres is up to three times the lev el placed on the budget in general. This phenomenon affects future deve-
lopments just as much as the question of how to offset increasing costs – an issue frequently considered a necessary evil in the public sector generally, yet which theatres and orchestras are often expected to remedy on their own initiative. Over the medium to long term, this administrative ‘cost trap’ can lead to the closure of other cultural institutions and orchestras. Even if public subsidies are simply ‘froz-en’ at current levels, this inevitably leads to reductions in staff. These institutions have few opportunities to counteract this on their own: cushioning just one per-cent of linear annual growth in labour costs calls for a sustained an nual growth in box-office returns of around five percent. In light of resumed growth in inland revenue at the federal, state and local levels since 2006 as a result of the general
The Berlin Philharmonic on its home turf in the outdoor Waldbühne and the Berlin Philharmonie
128
economic upturn, one wonders whether the financial circumstances of theatres and orchestras will also improve as a consequence. But given the budgetary effects of the measures taken in 2010 to counteract the latest worldwide financial crisis, it would seem that every area in the public financing of culture will come under even more strain than has hitherto been the case. From the standpoint of artistic quality, choice of repertoire, orchestra size and the tasks at hand, there are abso-lute limits to the staff cutbacks of recent years. Countermeas ures and a change of approach are required if long-term damage to Germany’s cultural legacy is to be avoided.
Germany’s orchestras have high and at times unused potential for develop-ment, but hardly any ability to save additional money. What they need is great-er latitude in their business administration, a much greater professionalisation of their management, and greater reliability for planning by means of medium-term allocation agreements that reward, rather than punish, the reasonable use of funds and higher box-office returns. Neoliberalists may espouse the theory that theatres and orchestras must make their own way in the ‘marketplace’ in the same manner as everything else. Some advocate economic Darwinism: only what ‘sells’
A municipal orchestra of international stature: Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra
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will survive. This flies in the face, however, of the historical fact that in every era throughout Western civilisation the highest artistic standards have been achieved by means of outside funding, whether from the church, the crown, the aristocracy or the public purse.
1 As the Deutsche Oper am Rhein has sites in Dusseldorf and Duisburg, and thus two or-
chestras at its disposal, the total number of theatre orchestras (84) is one higher than the
number of music theatres.2 Theaterstatistik 2008/2009, ed. Deutscher Bühnenverein (Cologne, 2010), p. 263.
List of Illustrations:
p. 111 © Schirmer / Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker
p. 112-13 (left to right) © Udo Lauer,
© Christian Nielinger,
© Kai Bienert
p. 114 © KölnMusik GmbH / Jörg Hejkal
p. 123 © NDR / Klaus Westermann
p. 124 © Monika Rittershaus / Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker
p. 126-27 (left to right) © Bolk / Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker,
© Reinhard Friedrich / Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker,
© Monika Rittershaus / Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker
p. 128 © Onassis Ergasopulos / Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
© Deutsches Musikinformationszentrum 2011
